


Vanderwood’s Backstory

by of_fire_and_broken_bones



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Bad Parenting, Betrayal, Drug Dealing, Gen, Hacking, Hodgepodge of what Vanderwood’s past could be, I switch tenses like a monster, Illegal Activities, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Manipulation, Vanderwood Backstory (Mystic Messenger), Vanderwood Needs a Hug, Violence, Young Vanderwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26920237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/of_fire_and_broken_bones/pseuds/of_fire_and_broken_bones
Summary: Since Cheritz may never give us Vanderwood’s Route, I decided to take things in my own hands and create his backstory. It is a weirdly-formatted (bullet-points) story (?) that I may put into a logical story sequence later, who knows.Warning: I am not nice to Vanderwood as per the “Agent Backstory Rule.“
Comments: 9
Kudos: 7





	Vanderwood’s Backstory

**Author's Note:**

> Give Vanderwood a Route 2020 
> 
> TW: abuse, implied non-con (only in a few lines, but it is still there)

_To join the agency, you need to leave your family behind (or have no family) - aka, the backstory is probably tragic._

**What if...**

  * Vanderwood grew up in a normal family with parents who were employees of a company. He had no siblings, so he would often be by himself. At first, they were financially stable and a typical family. Because of poor decisions and luck, however, his family becomes financially unstable (he is 10) and resorts to getting involved with dealers/suspicious people as a source of income (through quick, illegal methods). Unfortunately, this backfires tremendously (as they meddled with criminals) and lands them in an I.O.U. situation. Instead of gaining income, they lose more money (i.e. they were tricked) and ended up indebted to the dealers. The dealers threaten they would dispose of the family if they proved useless (due to fear of arrest/exposure).



  * The parents are able to buy themselves more time to earn the money, but they cannot find a stable job that lasts (due to time-based inexperience and management issues). After a few months, they only collect a quarter of what they owe. The boss’ patience wears thin and he does not give the family another extension, claiming ‘their time has run out.’ He will get the money by forcefully obtaining the wills/possessions of the family (since they know the address) when they are murdered by his men.



  * **Take note** that when this exchange happens, Vanderwood (13) is in school at the time. [Yes, he still went to school as to not draw any further suspicions to outsiders, but once school was out, it was part of his routine to help his parents with the dealers’ illicit demands. He was also bullied at school for his shy personality and misfit appearance, but that’s for another time :’) .]



  * Realizing their minutes have become numbered, the parents start to panic and fear for their lives. They beg and plead but to their horror, the boss does not cave in. In a cowardly move to save their own skins and a last resort, the parents plead an ultimatum that the boss cannot resist.



  * The boss is at first skeptical about this compromise, as a) not many parents are willing to give away their child so this may be a deception and b) how would that guarantee that the parents will not blab their mouths to law enforcement about the whole operation once they are released from the dealers? However, the thought of having the boy work for them with no strings attached is a promising concept. A child is naive and easily molded/forced to submit to an adult’s will. This opportunity could expand the income sources of the dealers, as a child will unlock many more possibilities.



  * After mulling over the benefits and hindrances, the boss decides to accept the compromise, but with an addendum. In addition to handing the boy over, the parents will need a way to enforce their silence about the dealers and situation. He explains that should they utter a word about this to anyone, or if he has a suspicion that they were outed, the parents will immediately be sought after and killed. ‘The dealers have a way of keeping an eye on anyone who was ever associated with them,’ he adds to emphasize the threat and danger.



  * The parents easily agree to keep their mouths shut and swear they will just go on with their daily lives as if nothing happened. (At this point, the parents may seem OOC since ‘how can they just live on knowing they essentially trafficked their son to criminals?’ But fear brings out the ugliest part of a person, which just so happens to be cowardice in their case (fear of death). They mentally “justify” their actions by stating that it is practical for them to survive as they can just raise another kid for the family; Vanderwood was already going to be murdered without the compromise, so isn’t it better to have a few essential survivors than none?)



  * Even the boss is slightly surprised at the raw sincerity of the parents’ declaration. He was somewhat expecting them to rescind the compromise on the excuse that it was said in the “heat-of-the-moment,” or to decline the addendum because it would intrude upon their privacy. Hell, if they were brave people, he was expecting them to play the hero and think of some other half-baked compromise to sacrifice themselves to save their son. However, those cowards were never courageous people, and this was not the climax of some cliche-hero movie. The pathetic people groveling at his feet were not exactly the definition of sanity either. So, really was he supposed to be surprised when he has known for years that these cowards would accept the first chance of survival no matter the cost? No. Nor does he care about the ethics of parenthood either. If it takes parents selling their children for him and his men to get their big break, then so be it.



  * So, the boss accepts the parents’ answer, and both sides confirm the deal once more. The boss immediately sends out a few of his men to pick Vanderwood up from school, under the pretense that his parents were busy so they are the substitute chauffeurs. He tells the parents that once his men affirm that Vanderwood is in the car, he will let them go. The parents are excited by these turn of events and even cannot wait for their ‘heroic’ son to get captured by these criminals. After years of being essentially blackmailed and enslaved to these men, they would finally find freedom and return to being normal members of society. (In hindsight, they also would have one fewer mouth to feed so money will not be as tight.)



  * Back with our boy, Vanderwood is exiting the school after the last bell, quiet as usual. When he cannot find the run-down, rusted car his father owns at first, he slightly panics. Usually, that meant he would have to trek three miles back to the house or five miles back to the base, depending on the mood of the dealers and what tasks they assigned. This time, however, after minutes of searching, a man in a sleek, obsidian car calls out for him. As Vanderwood approaches the car, he recognizes the man as one of those dealers. The man explains that his parents were busy with a task but did not want him to walk home due to a forecasted thunderstorm. It would be awful if Vanderwood caught a cold. Even if Vanderwood could sense something wrong, the sky is cloudy and he is too exhausted to walk a marathon in pouring rain, so he hesitantly climbs into the car. A mistake he would regret mere minutes later.



  * As they pull onto the road, the men in the back suddenly restrain Vanderwood’s limbs with zip ties and gag him with black cloth. When Vanderwood’s mind processes what is happening, he immediately tries to lash out and get the men off him. Unfortunately, he is somewhat malnourished and these men are nearly triple his size; even on a good day, Vanderwood has no chances of fighting them off. Screaming out does not help either, as his sounds are muffled by the gag. And a quick side scan confirms that the windows are tinted, so no one will see the scene inside the car. Nonetheless, he keeps struggling, the ties chafing his skin. Irritated with Vanderwood, the men on either side of him grip his arms with bruising force to halt his movements. Soon, he slumps forward in exhaustion, too tired to grapple anymore against unyielding binds. He passes out moments afterwards.



  * Once they arrive at the base, the dealers jolt Vanderwood awake and shove him out of the car. Two force his shoulders down, leading him inside the base. At this point, Vanderwood’s mind is running a million thoughts on what happened to his parents. _Were they hurt? Were they still working? Were they even running errands? Were they ki_ —



  * His thoughts come to a screeching halt when he is jostled into a room and comes face-to-face with his parents. He wants to call out to them, but all that exits his mouth are unintelligible sounds. Upon further inspection, he notices that his parents don’t seem hurt and are not restrained like he is. In fact, he is confused as to why they are grinning at him like that. Like they are excited at the state their son is in… He thinks that maybe they would seem more concerned. Not wanting to assume the worst, Vanderwood decides that their attitudes are just a facade to deceive the dealers and get him out. But then, that does not explain why the boss smirks and declares to the room his parents are free to leave since the trade has transpired. It does not explain why his parents never questioned his predicament. And it certainly does not explain what happens next.



  * The boss whispers something to a dealer, who in turn yanks down Vanderwood’s gag. Vanderwood reaches his head out towards his parents, who approach him with pitying smiles. He is about to ask what is going on, when his mom tenderly cradles his face with her hands. She frets on about how sorry she and his dad are, and how this was the only choice they had. When he dares to wonder what that choice was, she only replies that Vanderwood will be a hero forever in their hearts. His mom then pries her hands away and joins his dad in leaving the room. His dad does not even cast another glance at him. Only once he cannot feel their presence anymore does Vanderwood understand why his mom’s voice was dripping with fake sympathy and cruel pity. And when the boss grips his chin with a mocking ‘Welcome to your new family,’ he realizes that his once-loving parents had purposefully abandoned their son to save themselves.



  * Over the next four-five years, Vanderwood basically experienced things that no adult, much less a child, should go through in the course of their lifetimes. He was initially forced to do illegal errands and jobs under the pretense of an innocent child. No one would immediately expect a young, weak teenager to swindle money, pickpocket purses, steal alcohol, and loot prescriptions. These were the relatively low-scale crimes, the ones that would earn a lesser sentence. If he refused to perform the task, or he performed poorly, the dealers were quick to teach him a lesson. It was rare for Vanderwood to pass a day without another bluish-purple patch blossoming on his skin. Naturally, he was not allowed to attend school anymore and did not receive an education at the base. He was constantly monitored by the dealers to keep him in line. And he was never allowed to go outside without a chaperone.



  * Once he grew a bit older, he was coerced into performing more dangerous crimes. He would accompany dealers to rob houses, engage in gang fights, and commit arson. Aside from a few close calls, they were never caught. Oh how Vanderwood wished they were caught. Prison would be a much better place than the base. (But he couldn’t risk anything on purpose, or else the boss will somehow find out and mercilessly break his bones.) However, he was soon seen as not cut out for the role when he broke down over stabbing a man in the chest. He was thrown around like a rag doll and locked in his room for two days. Afterwards, the dealers decided to grant him another role, one that would prove just as useful.



  * Vanderwood, from there on out, was forced to learn coding. The boss realized that if they could make a hacker out of the boy, they could cut back time on inefficient tasks while still generating profit. And so, a few dealers began ruthlessly drilling the difficult skill into his head, whether by mental or physical force. Vanderwood would pull all-nighters just to get a certain algorithm right and avoid facing a beating or worse. Sometimes, though, he could not flawlessly execute a maneuver and would be tortured in some form. (The worst is when the boss strides in with a disgusting smile and announces that it was his ‘playtime.’ And after every single time, Vanderwood would rub his skin raw trying and failing to erase the disgusting touches that stubbornly lingered.)



  * For a couple of years, the dealers used Vanderwood to hack into bank accounts, identity cards, and the likes. He was manipulated, tortured, and treated like a prisoner. Not a single dealer gave him any pity. And Vanderwood himself grew hardened to it all, associating the bruises with normality while losing faith in all humanity. He vowed if he ever got out of the shithole, he would never trust another human being again. With this, he learned to forget his parents, with the only goal on his mind being survival. One day, the first in years, fate granted him the one thing he was waiting for the entire time: escape.



  * The boss and dealers had decided to merge bases with another enclave of dealers in the next town. They were to be gone for a few days, and the boss had only left a couple of dealers in charge. By this time, Vanderwood had trained himself to be tougher, faster, and stronger. After the boss and his men left, Vanderwood waited a few hours for the couple of dealers to let down their guard. He gathered a small bag with a water bottle, a few switchblades, and a gun. Food would wait. When a few hours passed, he crept to where the guards were and wasted no time in shooting them both. He fled the scene without a passing glance to check if they were dead or not. Besides, he would feel no remorse in sending karma back to his tormentors. He never wanted to be a hero anyway.



  * Vanderwood successfully escapes. He spends months wandering homeless and suffering anxiety bouts. He is constantly alert of every person, paranoid that they are after him. He barely scrapes by with food and water, managing to survive off dumpster dives and odd-end jobs that require minimal education. Eventually, he ends up in contact with the agency through circumstantial chances and quickly takes the job. He does end up changing his identity to a fake one under a chosen name, but he never refused once if it made forgetting the past easier. He puts up with all the requirements, despite the dangerous strings he will forever be attached to. Real danger was getting attached to people and trusting them too easily. For a few years, he thrives with the adrenaline of missions and the general independence the agency offered (if had to still take orders from a boss, then so be it. At least he isn’t beaten around like a sick puppy.) He quickly becomes one of the best agents, a title that he thought would get people completely off his back and not hound him with frivolous chatter. He likes to be alone. He did vow to never form another relationship ever again.



  * That is, until he is assigned Agent 707.



**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I did... 
> 
> If you humans got this far, I would like to hear your own thoughts about Vanderwood in the comments!


End file.
